This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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Do you live in one of the most dangerous cities in New York?

We all watch the news and see reports on Facebook of the latest crimes that happen in our hometowns. But it can be hard to tell at a big picture level how dangerous our town actually is.

No one wants to feel unsafe, and statistically speaking, odds are that where you live is most likely relatively safe. In order to help the good people of New York — and anyone looking to move to New York — know just how close they are to danger, we took data from the annual FBI report and did some serious analysis.

For those wondering, NYC isn’t anywhere close to the top finishing in the 50s in terms of danger.

The data shows that these ten cities are currently the most dangerous in the Empire State:

Why did Niagara Falls take the top spot? For the answer to this question and a detailed explanation of the data and analysis we used in creating this ranking, read on. Or learn more about the safest places in New York.

How we determined the most dangerous cities in New York for 2018?

Every year the FBI release two crime datasets, a preliminary dataset limited to the biggest cities in the country, followed by a more detailed release at the end of the year.

For our analysis, we focused on the JUST released 2016 data, specifically the 2016 Crime In The United States Report. We will update the results when data becomes available for 2017 in October 2018.

So what criteria did we use? Have a look:

Violent Crimes Per Capita

Property Crimes Per Capita

In order to make the analysis as apples to apples as possible, we only considered cities over 5,000 in population. That left us with 215 cities in New York.

We then ranked each city from 1 to 215 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the most dangerous for the particular criteria.

Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.

Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in New York — Niagara Falls. Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in New York.

Here’s a visualization of the criteria:

Click To Enlarge

Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in New York.

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1. Niagara Falls

Population: 48,675Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,160Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,934
Most people know the town of Niagara Falls for the giant waterfalls that are a gift from Mother Nature. Unfortunately, to actually live in Niagara Falls is not so peaceful.

Niagara Falls has the 2nd highest violent crime ranking in the entire state of New York, and the property crime rate ranks 1st worst in the state. In fact, in 2016, there were 2,402 property crimes committed. That’s a lot of stolen property.

It’s important to note that our analysis is on a rate basis of people that live in the city. Since Niagra Falls gets so many visitors each year, it pushes up the numerator (crimes) significantly compared to the denominator (population). That being said, a crime is a crime, and a lot of them hapen in Niagra Falls.

2. Buffalo

Population: 257,446Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,109Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,116
Unfortunately, Buffalo Wings aren’t the only thing that Buffalo has a lot of. It also has the 3rd highest violent crime rate in all of New York. In 2016, for example, there were 2,857 violent crimes committed in Buffalo.

That being said, there are slightly less property crimes–Buffalo ranks 3rd for most property crimes in the state.

3. Binghamton

Population: 45,780Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 2)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 771Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,027
While there is certainly less violent crime in Binghamton than in Niagra Falls or Buffalo, there is actually more property crime. In 2016, there were 1,844 property crimes.

Overall, the city of 45,780 ranked as the 3rd most dangerous in New York.

4. Herkimer Village

Source: Public Domain

Population: 7,478 Rank Last Year: 6 (Up 2)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 722Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,426
Herkimer Village is the most populous city in Fulton County.

Herkimer Village experienced a massive rise in violent crime between 2014-16.

Property crime statistics, meanwhile, remained stagnant, with residents facing a 1 in 22.6 chance of being the victim of theft or arson each year — the 7th highest rate in the state.

5. Rochester

Population: 209,643Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 2)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 880Property Crimes Per 100k: 3,726
Rochester is the fith most dangerous city in New York, falling down a bit from its higher perch last year.

On the upside, there were 1,000 less property crimes in 2016 than the year before in 2015, so we can only hope the numbers will keep decreasing.

6. Watertown

Population: 26,765Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 1)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 676Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,375
Watertown makes this list mostly due to the instances of violent crime increasing between 2014-16, leaving residents a 1 in 147 chance of being the victim of violence in 2016.

Additionally, from 2014-16 property crime increased, but that fact has a lot less to do with Watertown’s spot on this list than the city’s violent crime rate.

7. Johnson City Village

Source: Public Domain

Population: 14,699 Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 1)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 503Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,864
While the violent crime is certainly lower than others on this list, Johnson City Village is actually ranked the 3rd worst place in New York when it comes to property crime.

The uncertainty of safety when it comes to property and belongings is why Johnson City Village comes in at 7th on this list of most dangerous cities in New York, one spot “better” than last year.

8. Albany

Population: 98,617Rank Last Year: 12 (Up 4)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 859Property Crimes Per 100k: 3,509
Albany comes in at 10th place when it comes to violent crime: there were 791 violent crimes in 2016, which gives Albany its 10th place ranking for violent crime.

The upside is, both property and violent crime rates are decreasing in Albany, and have been since 2011.

9. Jamestown

Population: 29,879Rank Last Year: 14 (Up 5)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 753Property Crimes Per 100k: 3,557
Jamestown, located in Chautauqua County, is the 9th most dangerous and 9th most violent city in New York.

Violent crime has remained high from 2014-16, during which time property crime fell by only small amounts.

10. Troy

Population: 49,876Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 6)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 725Property Crimes Per 100k: 3,592
Troy is relatively comparable with Albany. There is slightly less violent crime and property crime in Troy than in Albany, but the cities deal with similar safety issues.

However, though Troy has slightly less violent and property crime, both types of crimes have actually decreased in numbers over the past three years, whereas Albany’s rates have increased. So let’s hope Troy falls off the list next year?

Locking It All Up In New York

The latest FBI crime data shows that Niagara Falls ranks as the most dangerous city in New York for 2018.

However, there will be new data coming out later this year. At that point we can revisit Niagara Falls’s status — that is if they haven’t beaten us all up already.